Pretty Cool

With my camera bag over a shoulder I lead the way down the rain soaked dock toward the Anna Bella. Just behind me walked Winona with my backpack as well as her own. She’d insisted on carrying the lion’s share and I wasn’t going to argue. Both of us quite enjoyed these little moments where Winona could be the ‘gentleman’ of our happy couple. Though she was quiet I could feel her crackling with the same excitement that buzzed through me.

As we near the trusty old trawler the sounds of a familiar voice crooning a solo acapella version of Sloop John B comes echoing around Bella’s stout hull. Winona and I look at each other and smile. I’d learned over the years that the music lived inside my grandpa and it just had to come out one way or another. Before I had even seen him the solo becomes a duet as I begin to fill in the high notes around his low, gravelly lyrics. Rounding the corner we see him down on the dock, most likely in the middle of walking around Bella’s slip to give her a once over before the trip. As he turns to face us with a smile that warms me to my toes the duet becomes a trio. Winona’s tenor slips right in between his low notes and my high and though she doesn’t know the words she did know the tune enough to fill out the harmony with nearly pitch perfect ooo’s and ahh’s. The patter of drizzle on the wooden dock and the steel hull and the dark water all around us only adds to the symphony.

We all continue singing as we approach each other until, when I am in arm’s reach, Grandpa stops to say. “Buttercup.” He pulls me into a big hug.

My arms around his chest I squeeze him tight. “Hi Grandpa.”

He kisses the side of my head and holds what feels like an extra long time before slowly letting me go. Turning to Winona he waves her in. “Come on, now. You too.” With a chuckle and a big grin she steps forward to receive a Grandpa hug of her own. “How you doin, Winnie?”

“Never better, Mike.” She says, stepping back. “Never better.”

“You wanna go grab that canoe now?” He asks. “We should do it soon. I told them it would be this morning.” With a sly glance my way he adds. “Though I was warned you two might have a late night.”

“Ha!” Winona chortles.

“C-Canoe?” I say. “I forgot all about it.”

“I didn’t.” He winks. Turning his attention back to Winona he says. “There are some lovely little inlets and ponds to paddle around in over on the lee side of Ehkolie, as I’m sure Avery will show you.”

“I look forward to that!” She says. “I just hope the weather cooperates.”

Looking out past the gray clouds to the sliver of blue on the horizon he says. “Don’t you worry about a bit of rain. Sunshine is in its way.”

“Yeah, come on. Let’s go grab a canoe! Ha ha! This is gonna be so fun!”

With a chuckle he pats my shoulder. “I think I’ll let my strappin young grandson here do the heavy lifting. I’ll give you the address.” He looks me in the eyes. “If you don’t mind, my boy?”

“Of c-course not.” That look, that long hug he’d given me, the fact that I’d never known Grandpa to hand off any task that needed doing…something was different. Taking his hand I ask. “You okay, G-Grandpa?”

“I’m okay.” He gives my hand a squeeze. “Just learnin to slow down a step.”

“Yeah. That’s g-good. W-We’ll go get the canoe, Grandpa.” I say. “We’ll just drop our stuff off real quick.” Turning to Winona I motion her to follow. “Lemme show you my room.”

We head up on deck then back down into the living quarters. Moving single file down the narrow hall between I lead her to my room where we pile our bags beside the tiny closet.

“Gonna be cozy.” She says, looking at the single berth bunk.

“I c-could get a mat and sleep on the floor.”

“The hell you will.” From behind she pulls me into an embrace and nibbles my neck. “I never said there’s anything wrong with cozy.”

“He he he!” With a sigh I relax into her. “I think something’s w-wrong with Grandpa.”

“Baby.” She whispers, kissing me where she’d just nibbled. “This trip’s important to him. He’s only got so many of these left in him.”

“Oh, Winona!”

After a firm hug she turns me around to hold me by the shoulders and look me in the eyes. “He needs your love, your help, your support, and your presence. He doesn’t need your pity. Be there for him, but allow him his dignity. You can’t make a big deal every time he falters. Okay?”

“You’re right. You’re r-right.” I nod. “This is still h-hard.”

“For him too, baby.” She kisses me. “Ready?”

“Yeah.”

On the way out Grandpa gives me the instructions on where we’re going and who we’re talking to. As we drive to the address Winona asks. “Do you know them?”

Reading the little slip of paper I shrug. “Nope.” With a laugh I say. “Grandpa’s got a lot of f-friends and he’s always m-making new ones. This could be anybody.”

That anybody turned out to be a really sweet couple with a pair of twin baby boys. The husband was a professor at the college and the wife a stay at home mom who was trying to make a go of it with a homemaking advice YouTube channel. It was thanks to that channel that the pair were only too happy to share their canoe with us. When I give her puzzled look she gives me one right back.

“Don’t you know?”

“Um…”

She laughs. “That Mike is too much! He really doesn’t let much get to him, does he?”

Winona and look at each other then back to her. She has us follow her inside where she leads us to a laptop. Opening up her YouTube page she ranks the videos by popularity and right there at the top spot by a mile sat a thumbnail of Grandpa! The title of the video was in a language I didn’t recognize but there was no doubt that it was him in the picture.

Leaning in Winona exclaims. “It’s got almost a million views!”

“And it’s still doing numbers.”

The woman starts the video. It shows Grandpa, definitely within the past year sometime, with his keyboard set up in Del Park playing a silly tune as he did some of his keyboard antics that he’d told me was inspired by watching Chico Marx. Around him are a group of laughing, jumping and dancing children who absolutely lost their minds every time Grandpa punctuated the song with a series of hand claps and butt smacks as percussion. Something must have been in the air that day because every time he did it the kids would SQUEAL with laughter as their parents stood around laughing just as hard. It was only a few minutes long but something about it had struck a chord back in the woman’s home country of the Philippines and it had taken off.

The video makes me smile as hard as my cheeks could grin. I’d seen him do this act countless times and I could still well remember back when he would perform it for an audience of one, me, on the deck of the Bella. Hearing those children’s laughter brought back warm memories of my own giggles way back then. All these years later and he was still spreading joy all over Ehkolie, and now around the world!

“We were so lucky to stumble upon that and catch it on video. It doesn’t at all fit with the rest of my channel.” She tells us. “But it got it out there for people to see and that got me a sponsorship. A little one, but it’s a start.”

“Grandpa’s famous!” Winona gives me nudge. “Ha ha!”

“I can’t believe he didn’t tell you.” She says.

“I can believe it.” The husband replies. “When I told Mike he just seemed happy for us. Didn’t phase him at all. All he asked for was to maybe borrow the canoe someday for him and his grandson. You got a pretty cool grandpa there, Avery.”

“Y-Yeah.” I say, holding back the tears.

As we loaded and strapped down the watercraft along with the paddles and life jackets I was as proud as a Buttercup could be.